MeteoFax32. It is a French program that is especially adapted to use on computers embarked on board of the boats. An English version of this program will available later. This program provides some information concerning the frequencies and the programs of the stations. The address of the Meteofax32 site is:http://www.meteofax32.com

HamDream andWinDRM from HB9TLK is forDigital Transmissions of Voice and Data over radio with 2.3 to 2.5 khz bandwidth.

First beta version of atpdec has just been released.Atpdec is a NOAA POES satellite APT image decoder.It's an open source program targeted for Unix platforms (in particular Linux). It lacks fancy graphical interface but focus more on image quality. (see http://atpdec.sourceforge.net/gallery.html for some examples

N0ONG WX Sat Kepler Editor is designed to work only with AMSAT (verbose) format elements. Import the kepler file from AMSAT using the Open button. Everything other than the weather satellite elemnts will be removed automatically. Now you can remove specific satellites by pushing the appropriate button. Pressing the Save button will save the edited elements as kepler.dat.The program was written by Robert Boeckmann and runs on Macintosh OS X and OS9 and is freeware

Aleex Greenland G7JGQ have been devoloping a excellent Satellite tracking program AGSatTrack, and is now available to others.

XAXERO come out with an Internet solution to the Weather Fax for Windows Software for under $90. Please check the XAXERO page www.xaxero.com for more details.

a new version of WXTOIMG from Abstract Technologies New Zealand Limited is out that provides a complete Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NTinterface in a self-installing archive.The software is being supported under Linux, Windows, BeOS, FreeBSD and AIX versions. a Macintosh version isavailable soon.

A new release of Mscan Meteo Fax now has integrate FAX, NAVTEX and RTTY into a single program called Mscan Meteo Pro and is now available from the Mscan pages

WeatherDecode v1.10WeatherDecode is a program for decoding of AAXX and BBXX (FM-12) Meteo messages

A new free Windows satellite tracker programm called SatScape is now available. Satscape a specialised program that predicts where satellites are at the moment. You have also a World view, Horizon views, tabular list and a keppler update via your Internet connection.

Alberto Casapa, Italy has written receiver control software for different receivers such as Kenwood R-5000, Kenwood TS-790E, Yaesu FT 847, AOR AR 3000 and AOR AR 800. for more info visit Alberto´s Pages.

WXSat for Windows 3.1/95, decodes the signals in the APT format from NOAA, Meteor, Meteosat and GOES Satellites (AM) with a Soundcard.WXSat can decode also FM-Fax for decoding facsimile-signals transmitting via shortwave.WXSat works with the soundcard input so there is no external sampling hardware required. A cable between the receiver and the soundcard input is enough. The program has also a good English documentation.

Oded Regev 4Z5BS from Israel has written a small program called TRACKER that allows the creation of maps that can be combined with images taken from NOAA satellites.I have test it successfully with NOAA images received with WXSAT and JVComm. With it you can see country borders and sea/surface boundaries.The program is quite small but it comes with the world map so it is about 3.4 Mb in total.Here is a example from a NOAA 14 picture decoded with WXSAT and added the country borders from the TRACKER program.Several replies from test users, Oded send me a corrected versionv1.1 . It should work better now. There is still a known bug regarding fast Pentium computers.The ORBIT program will not run on fast computers (somewhere around 300Mhz and above). The only way to fix it is running a TSR program that slows the computer in DOS mode. You will probably find such TSR programs here . In the next version Oded will try to add it to the release.v1.1: Fixed bug in TRACKER.EXE with longitudes in the range 100E-360E (=100E-0E)

Test users should download the upgrade from v1.0 to v1.1 here and copy the new files to the TRACKER directory

Julian Moss wrote a application called SatMon. With this utillity you can recording audio signals from weather satellites as WAV files to decode with WXSAT or other programs.

David J Taylor wrote a decode program called SatSignalWith this program you can demodulate signals from pre-recorded .WAV files. This program produce higher resolution images without the bent verticals resulting from Meteor decode with WXSAT. David has also excellent satellite tracking software called WXtrack

Les Hamilton wrote a program called PALETTE to optimised the colors from images decoded with WXSAT.PALETTE is a Windows 3.x/9.x compliant program wich operates on luminance bands within a BMP image produced using WXSAT in conjunction with an image processing program such as Paintshop Pro etc.

Hellschreiber, wich becomes worldwide a renewed interest is a very old mode wich was first introduced 1921 by Rudolf Hell.The Hellschreiber is an early faximile communication , where only upper case letters were transmitted and received.Hellschreiber is an asynchronous transfer mode where the signal is discretely coded. This means two things:The transmitter does not tell the receiver how fast it transmits. It simply sends the message in it's own speed and the receiver must do it's best.Hellschript is transmitted with either on or off signal. It was hence easy to implement on available radio equipement. One simply connected the transmitter to where the morse key would be. Such signals are very sturdy to radio noise. All unwanted frequencies may be filtered away.The hellschreiber was invented by Dr. Rudolf Hell in 1929 . It was used by the Germans during WW2 and some receivers was built by the British and Americans to intercept enemy communications.

Nino Porcino, IZ8BLYhas make a excellent Windows 95/NT based Hell program wich used the Sound Card from your PC. You can download the program from Nino´s Home PageFor more info on Hellschreiber you should first check Murray´sZL1BPU Pageswich is the best source on the net.

You can find Hellschreiber transmissions during weekends at 14063.5 KHz LSB (13:00 UTC mode Feldhell), also on 7037 KHz and 3580 KHz LSB (Tuesdays 20:00 UTC) for Europe.Check also 3560 KHz LSB at 08:00-09:30 UTC for the "Hellraisers" Net or the DX Hell frequencies at 10140, 14063.5 or 21063.5 KHz LSB between 05:00 and 10:00 UTC.

There is a limited Beat version of Radioraft3 available now. Full version is expected in April.

New version of JVComm32 ready for download.The current version is 0.97Some new features: SSTV Robot 36 mode for MIR reception, FAX TX in B&W, Scheduler (RX and TX) for FAX and SSTV, pre-select for different Sound Cards, Different Configurations and a lot of other usefull new features.When more time I will make all FAX schedules for JVComm32 and will upload them on the "Schedule" page.

Les Hamilton, UK has launched a new Satellite tracking program called Footprint.Footprint is program which displays the positions of an orbiting satellite and its footprint on a map of the Earth, updating its position and footprint every minute.The program can also provide reference tables of relevant ephemeris, A.O.S. and keplerian element data.The program reads satellites' orbital elements from keplerian element files in standard NASA 2-line format, specifically filtering out only those satellites belonging to the following classes :NOAA, USA; Meteor Okean and Resurs, Russia; Sich, Ukraine.Download your copy of Footprint from Les Hamilton´s Home Page.FOOTPRINT has now a two-map option. You can change the map to one centred on 180 degrees ( for Australian users ).Also, the time and date routines have been improved.

Adding a Software overview for other decoding Software using the Sound Card (see table below)

JVComm Beta 0.9 from Eberhard Backeshoff , DK8JV now available, this new 0.9 beta release supports also transmission/reception via sound cards. At least a 16 bit sound card is required, and the the computer should be a Pentium 90 or better. You can download JVComm32 as a unregistered demo version from Eberhard Backeshoff´s Home Pages

I have uploaded a Sound Blaster TSR programm (written by 4Z5BS) that allows you to receive and transmit FM-FAX, SSTV and AM-FAX using only your Sound Blaster card. All you need is a Sound Blaster Pro card and JVFAX. For download see Software overview.

Just testing the JVComm32 Beta version 0.8 from Eberhard Backeshoff, DK8JV. The author who was written also the populair JVFAX software, wrote JVComm32 for use with DSP controller such as the new EasyDSP from DF6JB. JVComm32 will running only with Windows 95 or Windows NT, not with Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.JVComm32 decodes all Fax modes, FM for shortwave, AM for Geo- and Polar Satellites, also H 288/120 and Ham 288B.Also all "Free Run" SSTV modes Martin M1 and M2, Scotti S1 and S2, Scotti DX, Wraase 180s, Pasakon P3, P5 and P7. JVComm from DK8JV together with EasyDSP from DF6JB is a new revolution for image communications.

RCKRtty Rtty, PSK31, Amtor, Pactor and CW program for Windows95/98/NT and different Modems such as SCS, AEA, MFJ, DSPCOM and KAM

A new satellite wefax image decoding software called SATFAX from John Lee Wilson W4UVV is now available to the public.It originally was written to accommodate the image noise dot saturation problem thet occurs when the disered 40 kHz bandwidth.SATFAX was designed for the occasional wefax monitor who wishes to use an ICOM R700, R7100, or AOR 3000A (also other receiver/scanner that receive either 1691 MHz or the 137 MHz range) and soundcard in his computer with wefax software to receive polar orbiting and geostationary satellites.What makes it so special is that in processing the wefax signal, the software compensates for the narrower bandwidth of receivers that typically have a 20 kHz bandwidth for wefax reception.

WFAX a programm for receiving weather charts from shortwave stations. It supports several decoders and OS/2 -known soundcards. For downloading WFAX go to the WFAX Home Page from Juergen Dankoweit, Germany.

New SSTV shareware program GSHPC SHW-1.2 from G. Szabados-Hann, DL4SAW, now available. It uses a simple decoder such as HamComm. For downloading SHW-1.2 or the registered version V-2.22 go to the DL4SAW Home Page

RadioRaft , a multimode Radio Data Decoder software with 10 ARQ modes, 8 FEC modes and many others... now downloadable from the RadioRaft hompagefrom F6FLT.RadioRaft is compatible with the simple HamComm interface.

New Windows 95 program to control a Robot 1200C SSTV scan convertor version 3.0 from William Montgomery VE3EC now available. For more information the author can be contacted via Internet email at: William.Montgomery@cciw.ca

David Black WB9TMF has written fax software running on Linux. He receives automatically pictures from USCG Point Reyes, and shows the results on the the net. The page automatically updates every 15 minutes.

WXSat from Christian Bock Germany, a program to decode the signals in the APT format from NOAA, Meteor, Meteosat and GOES Satellites.It use the soundcard input so there is no external sampling hardware required. A cable between the receiver and the soundcard input is enough. The program has a German dokumentation. For downloading WXSat (110K) click here.

RADIOFAX version 1.0 is a 32bit OS/2 PM program that requires OS/2 2.0 or above and a MMPM/2 installed with an MMPM/2 compatible sound card, download RADIOFAX.ZIP (119KB).

PROSKAN 2.07b, a great (all modes) SSTV/FAX shareware program from KA1LPA with dual screen and thumbnails, easy to use, requires a simple decoder circuit. PROSKAN.ZIP (130K).Here are two pictures I have received with PROSKAN and a simple decoder on 3730 kHz. SSTV001.JPG (21K), SSTV002.JPG (19K).

New beta SSTV shareware program GSH-PC from G. Szabados-Hann, DL4SAW, now available. It uses a simple decoder such as HamComm. The program was described in CQ DL 12/95 page 882. GSHPC.ZIP (646K) Download the instructions from Geza DL4SAW

New Version of JVFAX available. Today many HAMs and SWLs are getting started in the Hobby with a very inexpensive software. The software is called JVFAX and is written by Eberhard Backeshoff DK8JV.Requires a simple Decoder.Modes: FM-Fax (HF), AM-Fax (Satellite) and SSTV.JVFAX release 7.1 (468K) (stores Pictures in TARGA format).JVFAX release 7.0 (stores Pictures in GIF format).